Oscar Wilde | Se non avessimo amato / Ay! had we never loved

Se noi non avessimo amato,

Chi sa se quel narciso avrebbe attratto l'ape

Nel suo grembo dorato,

Se quella pianta di rose avrebbe ornato

Di lampade rosse i suoi rami!

Caspar David Friedrich | Ruins of the Oybin, 1835 | Hermitage Museum

Louis Wain | Postcard artist

Louis William Wain (1860-1939) was an English artist best known for his drawings of anthropomorphised cats and kittens.

Wain was born in Clerkenwell, London.

In 1881 he sold his first drawing and the following year gave up his teaching position at the West London School of Art to become a full-time illustrator.

He married in 1884 but was widowed three years later.

In 1890 he moved to the Kent coast with his mother and five sisters, and, except for three years spent in New York, remained there until the family returned to London in 1917.

Giacomo Leopardi | L'infinito / The Infinite

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,

e questa siepe, che da tanta parte

dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

Ma, sedendo e mirando, interminati

spazi di lá da quella, e sovrumani

silenzi, e profondissima quiete

Caspar David Friedrich | A Walk at Dusk, about 1830-1835 | The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Loïc Jouannigot, 1953 | Children's book illustrator

Loïc Jouannigot, born in Brittany, France, is a children's book illustrator.

A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts, he has worked for the children's book and advertising industries.

From 1987 onwards, he became known more widely as an illustrator of children's literature, with the beginning of a long series of publications on "La famille Passiflore" ("Beechwood Bunny Tails") with texts by Geneviève Huriet.

This serie has been a real best-seller, being translated in 28 languages.

Van Gogh's flowers

Vincent van Gogh was a flower fan!

It all began in Paris, where he lived for two years (1886-88).

During his time there, he noticed that flower still lifes sold well.

Some French artists even specialised in painting flower still lifes.

Van Gogh started painting flower still lifes in the hope they would sell well.

Vincent van Gogh | Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, 1890 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tamara de Lempicka | Russian Dancer, 1924

Russian Dancer was created in 1924 by Tamara de Lempicka (Polish Art Déco painter, 1894-1980).

The painting is part of the Collection of Polish businessman and art collector Marek Roefler/ Villa la Fleur, Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland.

Russian Dancer, posthumously titled in reference to the Ballets Russes - the troupe founded by Serge Diaghilev, which took Paris by storm in the 1910s and 1920s with its innovative choreography and gleaming costumes and sets designed by Russian artists-portrays a woman dressed in folk attire from southern Russia.

Tamara de Lempicka | Russian Dancer, 1924

Louis Aragon | Non esistono amori felici / There is no happy love, 1943

Nulla appartiene all’uomo. Né la sua forza

Né la sua debolezza né il suo cuore E quando crede

Di aprire le braccia la sua ombra è quella di una croce

E quando crede di stringere la felicità la stritola

La sua vita è uno strano e doloroso divorzio

Non esistono amori felici.

Marc Chagall

Charles Baudelaire | Inno alla bellezza / Hymn to Beauty

Vieni dal cielo profondo o esci dall’abisso,

Bellezza? Il tuo sguardo, divino e infernale,

dispensa alla rinfusa il sollievo e il crimine,

ed in questo puoi essere paragonata al vino.

Daniel Gerhartz | Green velvet

60 meraviglie d'Italia, patrimonio dell'Umanità | Pagina 8

Di seguito la ottava pagina dei 60 siti Italiani, Patrimonio dell'Umanità

(in ordine alfabetico)

Sacri Monti del Piemonte e della Lombardia

9 beni in 2 regioni

Anno di ammissione: 2003

I nove Sacri Monti nel Nord Italia sono gruppi di cappelle e altri elementi architettonici realizzati tra XVI e i XVII secolo e dedicati a diversi aspetti della fede cristiana.